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Ashur knows the second it happens. He’s mid-conversation with Gallus, and then his eyes find Cael and he watches their expression go blank while they sway on their feet. Wild eyes search the gathered Dragons, and before he can move, Tarquin is there, dismissing the person they’d been talking to, putting himself between Cael and the rest of the room, his bulk shielding them. Gloved hands take theirs - he knows they’re shaking, he can see it from across the room - and press them to Tarquin’s chest to feel his heartbeat.
It’s too loud to hear the quiet words, but he knows what they mean regardless: you’re safe, it’s safe here, whatever you see, I’m here. It’s not always enough, but it’s a start, and grounding them is the first priority.
“Do you want to-?” Neve quirks a brow as she follows his gaze.
“No, he’s got it.” He tries to focus on her words as they go back to discussing the Threads’ movements, but his eyes keep going back to Tarquin and Cael. He’s getting them into a chair, telling them everything before he does it, asking quiet questions to orient them. They’d talked things over with a healer, soon after he’d gotten Cael out of the Chantry itself, about what to do if they have a vision, or something like this happens. They’ve gotten more infrequent the longer Cael is free, and for that, Ashur is grateful.
These episodes still happen sometimes, where they go away in their head; it isn’t a possession, but something else. Tarquin had been worried at first, about the risk to the Dragons should they end up possessed, but he’d asked around, and talked to healers - this is a reaction to what they’d gone through over the years, like the Templars that had come back different, haunted by the battlefield. The ritual herbs they’d been given over years likely hadn’t helped, but that would never happen again if he has a say in it.
Still, though, they’re doing better. This doesn’t happen often, and it’s something they can handle when it does. More often, Cael says, are the colored lights or the way the walls breathe. They stay off missions when those happen, just in case, but it’s manageable , and Ashur will take what he can get at this point.
Tarquin is still talking to them, but Cael is responding, and their gaze is clearer as they look over at him; they even offer a smile, small and reassuring.
He’ll take it.